


Dry Fire

by MEGrymz



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6715639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEGrymz/pseuds/MEGrymz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At some point in their life, every archer will accidentally dry fire a bow. Unfortunately, that sometimes means it will break, right in your face. Loghain learns this the hard way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dry Fire

"Loghain!"

"Don't touch it!"

The teyrn stood wide-eyed in the courtyard, clutching the side of his face. His fingers had slipped from the bowstring in a foolish moment of distraction and haste- he swore loudly, scolding himself for handling his weapon so carelessly. He had only meant to check the draw weight, but... He took his glove away from his skin with a sting, dripping a deep red, and he looked down at the bow in a daze.

It had split with the dry fire, and the heavily weighted bowstring whipped across his face mercilessly and without restrain. He was lucky to have turned his head just enough that it missed his eye. Soldiers had gone blind from such unfortunate injuries before.

"Loghain," Maric repeated, voice saturated with worry, "Let me help you, there's blood everywhere--"

"I'm fine!" He turned away and tore a section of decorative fabric from his armor, then balled it up and pressed it to the wound. "Don't burden yourself with my childish mistakes. This should never have happened."

Maric gave him a hard look and took his arm. "Shut up and come inside so I can help you."

* * *

"There's so much blood for such a slender cut," Maric murmured. "I expected some horrible gaping wound in your face."

"No. Head wounds just bleed a lot." Loghain sat still as Maric sponged at his face and wiped the blood from his neck. He sat in the washroom on the edge of the tub, watching his blood drip slowly down into it.

"Guess we won't be using this rag again," Maric chuckled, and wrung the red out into the tub before dunking it into the water bucket. Loghain sat still again, looking ahead at the king's soft and concerned expression. Maric gently patted it all from his face and bandaged the damn thing as best as he could, before frowning down at the rest of the mess. "...And I guess you won't be using those leathers again."

"They're only stained."

"Yes, I know, but you can't exactly be the right hand of the rulers of Ferelden and run around wearing bloodstained..." He trailed off-- Loghain looked so offended by the idea of wasting perfectly functional leathers that Maric didn't dare continue. "Just take them and your undershirt off, okay?"

The two wrestled with all the silly clasps for a few moments before Loghain stripped the bloody clothing off and dumped it into the driest half of the tub. The dark man looked a bit silly, sitting there in his trousers, but Maric couldn't keep back an amused grin. "Are you going to let me clean the blood out of your hair or am I going to have you fight you about that, too?"

"I seem to have little choice in the matter." He allowed the other to wet his hair and clean it out, though he grimaced when Maric began trying to wrestle his dark locks into a bun. But soon, with his hair tied high up on his head and his chest bare, Maric could properly clean up what the other could not do himself. Loghain watched him tenderly wipe up his shoulder. "...Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he sighed, chewing his lip a moment. "You scared me, you know. I've never seen that happen before."

"A bow breaking?"

"Well, no, but... You shouted. I didn't know how badly you were hurt."

"...Ah." He honestly didn't remember it. "Well... I assure you, Maric. Many things frighten me, not just exploding longbows."

Maric snorted. "You know what I mean."

The pair sat in silence for a bit. Maric treated his love with gentle hands, and Loghain watched with dark eyes, just a bit softer than usual.

"...I'm sorry to have frightened you."

Maric blinked. "What?"

"When I cried out," Loghain clarified. "You said that it frightened you, to see me hurt. I'm sorry."

The two made rather intense eye contact for several long moments as Maric stared rather dumbly, taken aback. "Loghain," he murmured, "You don't have anything to apologize for. I was afraid because I love you."

Loghain let the sound of that sink in for a moment. Maric loved him. He had heard the words from the other's lips many times, but right now, the sound was sweeter-- not just music to his ears, but an entire song and dance that they were still both clumsily learning the steps to. "I love you, as well."

Maric's delighted expression drew a smile to Loghain's face. Not a smirk or an amused chuckle, but a genuine smile-- perhaps the rarest thing to see from such a man. They stayed like that, smiling and gazing into each other's eyes, until Maric broke the silence with an innocent question.

"...Promise you won't explode an entire longbow again?"

"I promise."


End file.
